Ahhhh, finally spring has sprung! The tulips and daffodils are popping, people are out biking and working in their yards, and best of all HOME ARE SELLING!!!

The difference between this year and last is just incredible. Last year it felt like you were literally digging for buyers, this year it feels like they are sprouting from the ground like the previously mentioned tulips (can you tell I live in Holland!?). I imagine part of this is owed to the $8000 first time buyers tax credit, the incredible selection of homes, and the ridiculously low prices. I think the other part of it is that people are just sick of hearing about doom and gloom and the nice weather is spurring them to get out and look at the new home they have been putting off.

Are you in the market for a new home?

Check out these beauties:

3370 Hollywood, Holland, 49424

144 W 28th St, Holland, MI 49423

130 W 33rd, Holland, MI 49423

14146 Carol St, Holland, MI 49424

If any of these peak your interest, or if you are interested in getting listings sent to you that fit your needs just shoot me an email or give me a call! I love working with first time buyers. Don't be afraid to look at homes because you don't know if you qualify for a loan or don't know the process, I would love to help you figure out the process!

Have a GREAT weekend!

Mike Slager

Greenridge Realty

616.502.037

mike@mikeslager.com

blog.MikeSlager.com

www.MikeSlager.com

I found a new song that I just love to crank up in the car when I need a little extra energy, or when I am a little down.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Blue October - Jump Rope

Remember how you used to say
You couldn't wait till tomorrow for a brand new day
no fuss when ya had to ride the bus
You just add a little blush
To paralyze your school crush

Now you're older and the weight is on your shoulder
Make the world a little colder
No more hidin in the old day
Be strong
Don't you give up hope
It will get hard
Life's like a jump rope

Up down
Up down
Up down
Up down yeah
Cause it will get hard
Remember life's like a jump rope

Up down
Up down
Up down
Up down yeah
It will get hard
Cause it will get hard

There'll be a bump and there will be a bruise
There'll be alarms and there will be a snooze
There'll be a path that you will have to choose
There'll be a win and there will be a lose and

You gotta hold your head up high and
Watch all the negative go by
Don't ever be ashamed to cry
You go ahead
Cause life's like a jump rope


Up down
Up down
Up down
Up down yeah
It will get hard
Remember life's like a jump rope

Up down
Up down
Up down
Up down yeah
It will get hard
Come on


I want to tell you that everything will be okay
That everything will eventually turn itself to gold
So keep pushing through it all
Don't follow, lead the way
Don't lose yourself or your hope
Cause life's like a jump rope


Up down
Up down
Up down
Up down yeah

You stomp your feet so hard you make it pound
Raise the bottom to the top
And now we're never coming down

Up down stomp your feet spin around
Clap hands to the rhythm
Then you slip down

You stomp your feet so hard you make it pound
Raise the bottom to the top
And now we're never coming down

Up down
Up down
Up down
Up down yeah
It will get hard
Remember life's like a jump rope

Up down
Up down
Up down
Up down yeah
It will get hard
Cause it will get hard

Up down
Up down
Up down
Up down yeah
Life's like a jump rope

Up down
Up down
Up down
Up down yeah

Whoa oh
Cause life's like a jump rope

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

I hope it can help brighten your day! You can listen to it here!

If you are a buyer looking for your first home, someone looking to sell their home, or you just wanna say HI give me a call! Ilove to sell homes in Holland, Zeeland

Mike Slager - Greenridge Realty

616.502.0367

mslager@greenridge.com

I generally try not to get political in these blogs for a number of reason, but I feel very strongly about the plan presented by the Obama administration yesterday (on top of of the rescue package previously announced). Without over-hyping something we unfortunately still don't have a ton of details for (they won't really be released until March 4th), I feel strongly that we are finally starting to see some actions to truely bring us out of the recession. Obviously it won't happen overnight, but we didn't get where we are overnight either so that should be expected.

If we can stop some of these foreclosures it will reduce the number of homes on the market causing home values to go up. It will also free up banks funds, thus allowing them to loan to business. With more available money businesses should be able to employ more people. With more jobs people will buy more, etc.

Obviously this is an oversimplification, but I think you can see what I am saying.

Is the plan perfect? Doubt it, no plan is. But even if it does half as much good as it appears it may it should start a ripple effect greatly improving our economy!

If you are behind on your mortgage and scared of foreclosure, please give me a call. I will gladly help you in any way I can!

Mike Slager - Greenridge Realty

616.502.0367

mslager@greenridge.com

Say what you will about the government takeover of Fannie and Freddie (and I am sure there is a lot to be said!) but I am loving these new low interest rates! I really hope a lot of people take advantage of them while they can, I am sure they will be going back up.

Really, it is the perfect time to be a first time home buyer! In addition to the great interest rates, there is the $7500 first time buyer tax credit. While the credit is little more than a loan from the government to the buyer, it is interest free. I know I certainly could have used an added $7500 to my tax return to:

- pay for my wedding

- make improvements to my new home

- new furniture

- take a vacation (or just pay off the honeymoon!)

On top of that, you may have heard (and who hasn't!) that it is a buyers marker. I think that we may be seeing the lowest home prices we are going to be seeing (thats a whole nother post) and there are plenty of homes and condos on the market.

Seriously, what are you waiting for? Get out there today and buy that home of your dreams!

Need some help?

Call me at 616.502.0367 or email me at mslager@greenridge.com

Check out www.MikeSlager.com for the home of your dreams in West Michigan!

It has been a while since I have posted anything on here! Thats what happens when you get wrapped up in a wedding, honeymoon, etc.

My wife, Kelly, and I were married August 1st on Windmill Island here in Holland, MI. We were lucky and had perfect weather (although very hot in a tux!). Windmill Island is already absolutely beautiful, but our caterers (Via Maria) did an awesome job turning the Celebration Pavilion into a reception even better than our dreams!

After the wedding we stayed the night at the new City Flats Hotel in downtown Holland. It is a LEED certified Hotel, which means it is very energy efficient and heavily uses recycled materials. The stay there was WONDERFUL, we didn't want to leave!

For our honeymoon we went up to Petosky for a few days. The last day we were there we spent at the spa at Boyne getting massages and relaxing.

 After our massages we hopped in the car and headed for Mackinac Island. We did the usual tourist things (took the buggy ride around the island, bought fudge, etc.) before some nasty looking clouds rolled in (thunderstorms were predicted). We still needed to get to our campsite and set up our tent so we decided to leave before we could tour the fort.

Hopping back in our car we traveled over "the bridge" into the U.P. and headed west on US 2. We stopped at a State Park just east of Naubinway by the name of Hog Island Point State Park. It was very rustic but incredible beautiful. Our site was right on the shore of Lake Michigan! We literally looked out our tent onto Lake Michigan! It was serene and incredibly relaxing, just what we needed after the busy pre-wedding weeks.

Because it was such a rustic campground it had no showers, therefore my wonderful wifey decided we needed to leave the next morning for our final destination of our honeymoon: Taquamenon Falls. If you don't know anything about Taquamenon Falls  (as I didn't) it is actually a set of falls (the Upper and Lower Falls). Check out the wiki page for it here.

Nearest to the campground is the Lower Falls. It is very wide with an island in the middle of it. The Lower Falls isn't a very high fall, in fact there kids playing in part of it, they were barely shorter than the falls.

  The falls are sometimes are known as the Rootbeer Falls because of their distinctive color. The water isn't dirty at all, quite the opposite, but it is stained by the soil which is heavy in peat and iron.

The Upper Falls are about 4 miles from the Lower Falls. There is a very nice trail made so you can hike from one to the other. We (I) decided that a 4 mile hike doesn't sound that bad...until you have to hike back, so we drove. This fall is about 50 foot high and was altered back in the logging days because it was ruining the lumber as they were trying to float it down the river.

All in all, it was a very relaxing time.

It dawned on me how stressful the whole wedding thing is, and many buyers (and some sellers) are going through all of this while trying to purchase (or sell) a home! If you are a buyer (or seller) looking to for someone who can understand and help take some stress out of your experience I would love to help! I can be reached via call or text message at 616.502.0367 or via email at mslager@greenridge.com. I especially love helping first time buyers!

Wow, it has been a while since I have been on here!

The last couple of weeks have been a very busy couple of weeks, and the next couple are gonna be CRAZY busy. My fiance Kelly and I get married on August 1st so we are pretty much in final countdown mode trying to get all of the last minute details ironed out. We met with our caterer for the final time last night, and it only helped to show how much more than I thought we have left to do! Thankfully our caterers, Susan and Sharon of the delicious Via Maria, are absolutely awesome and are helping with so much. This weekend is the bachelor party (not details shall be shared...). Next week we meet with our photographers, Shawn and Julie Von Ins of Von Ins Photography next week.

All in all I am VERY excited, but "free time" is pretty much non-existant so don't expect to see much of me on here anytime soon!

Buying your First Home?

First of all, Congrats! This is a GREAT time to buy your first home! Currently interest rates are still low but appear to be headed upward; meanwhile there are TONS of great homes on the market, combined with the lowest home prices we have seen in almost 10 years.

Here are a few things you should know:

#1 You want an agent to work for you! Sounds like a no brainer doesn't it? Well, what you may not realize is that in the State of Michigan (as well as many other states) unless you have declared on paper that an agent is working for you that agent is required by law to work for the seller. This means any information they find from you could be used to help the seller get more of your money.

                1a) "So why wouldn't I sign a buyers agency contract?" Honestly, I can't think of a reason, you have everything to gain by having a Realtor designated to help you. If you aren't sure about an agent and want to "test them out" sign a one day contract!

#2 Before going out to see homes, get prequalified by at least one mortgage person. Many times it is required that you show you are prequalified before a seller will seriously consider your offer.

#3 Talk to more than one mortgage person. There are MANY types of loans, and not every mortgage company offers every type of loan. For that reason alone it makes sense to talk to multiple mortgage people, besides that you may be able to obtain lower closing fees and/or lower interest rate.

#4 You can't walk into this with "no money". Whenever you move, it is going to cost you money, no matter how the loan is structured. There are many things, such a home inspections, that you will need to pay for; it is good to ask your loan person and your Realtor what you can expect to have to pay for out of pocket in advance. All that said, there are some GREAT loan programs out there that can definitely help you get a home with minimal money out of pocket.

Obviously, there is a lot more to the whole process. Your buyers agent will be able to help guide you through it!

I love to help first time buyers get the home of their dreams! I work primarily in Holland, MI but am very familiar with the Zeeland, Grand Haven, Spring Lake, Fruitport, and Muskegon areas as well.  If I can help you find your home, or connect you with a Buyer's Agent in your area don't hesitate to let me know!

Mike Slager - First Time Buyer Specialist

I can be contacted at 616.502.0367 or mslager@greenridge.com

Visit http://hollandhomes.rightlanding.com/ to sign up to receive automatic updates when a home that fits your needs comes on the market or has its price reduced!

The Holland area, and really most of West Michigan has been hit really been hit by rain within the last week. Yesterday was OK and today has been very nice (thankfully!) but before that it was terrible, flooding many areas. It was especially terrible because there were casualties due to this downpour. See some articles here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. I know, that's a lot, and I also know there is a lot more. It's amazing to me how much rain can really affect our area.

I was out yesterday showing homes to one of my clients and of the 4 homes I showed him 2 of them still had serious water issues inside. The two were foreclosures, and my guess is that the agents had no idea of the problem (I of course left them a voicemail). One of the rooms in the first home was under a half inch of water!

In both cases I am pretty sure under normal circumstances we would have never found those issues prior to closing on the home. There is also a good chance home owners insurance would not have covered the issue simply because we don't generally carry flood insurance in this area. As unlucky as many were with this rain, my client ended up kind of lucking out!

We ended up submitting an offer on a nice HUD home, with no flooding, just outside of Park Township (my favorite area of Holland). Hopefully we will have an accepted offer by the end of this week!

For those of you who enjoy the Holland State Park you may be pleased to know there will be a new choice for food (other than the always delicious Ottawa Beach Inn). The ruling on the Smitty's Pronto Pups restaurant has finally been made in favor of the township (see the Holland Sentinel article here), thus allowing the restaurant to start building. As of right now I haven't heard a date, but I will be sure to pass it on when I do!

No matter what my stand may/or may not be on  the issue of conditional zoning, I will be happy to have a delicious corndog stand open so close to the beach and my home!!!!!!

Mark, happy to have you and your fried goodness in the neighborhood!

We'll try round two at this blog! I was silly enough not to type this in word, pressed submit and... well you probably know where I am goin!

I myself am not a smoker. Oh, I enjoy the occasional cigar, but the anti-smoking laws shouldn't stop that! There was an article in the Holland Sentinel (click on the name to read the article) recently concerning the "voluntary" movement of bar and restaurant owners to "smoke-free". Here in the downtown Holland area , there are exactly two places that allow smoking on a full-time basis (one bar/restaurant allows it after 10PM). The State of Michigan is currently working on legislation that bars it from any public building.

There are, of course, two opposing sides to this legislation (and to the idea of a smoke free bars and restaurants in general). I totally can see and understand both sides.

One side says, "If you ban smoking then bars and restaurants are going to lose major business". Some from this side also say, "Smokers should have the right to kill themselves if they want to". I think most of us would agree the second doesn't hold a lot of water as there is no stopping second hand smoke, which may be as or more dangerous. The first argument is interesting though, and I will come back to it in a minute.

The other side of the argument is that if you ban smoking inside bars and restaurants more people will be likely to go to them. Also, there is of course the health thing...

My thoughts are this:

•-          It does suck to go to your favorite watering hole, sit down then have to leave because you can barely see through the cloud of smoke, your eyes and nose burning. You get home and you need to shower and you feel like you need to burn your clothes to get the smoke out!

•-          Bars and Restaurants are businesses, what if they want to be a "smokers" bar? I too am a business, what if someone told me I was not allowed to be a "First Time Buyer Specialist"?

I would love to hear what your thoughts are!